Purple grounds in chintzes go back to the 18th century. For the mid-19th-century you'll probably want to stick with monochromatic prints.

Judie Rothermel reproduction

And you have to decide how purple you want to go.

Should it be purple as it came off the bolt?

Paula Barnes, Companions

Or purple as it appears today?

From Betsy Chutchian's Wrappers

Judie's Authentic Minis

Terry Thompson's Merchants Wife

Some purples suitable for mourning prints from my

Civil War Jubilee collection for Moda.

I found this color in a swatch book---not exposed to light.

Reproduction block by Becky Brown with purples from that line.

You see redder violets too as in this Collection

for a Cause Mill Book 1892 coming soon.

And look for purples mixed with madder shades.

From a Shelburne Museum collection

What To Do with Your Stack of Stars?

Build a square around your block.

Grandma Laurel's blocks-

Fabrics: Dancing in the Rain

from Edyta at Laundry Basket Quilts with

some bronzey-browns

Turn your stars on point and add triangles to the edges.

Cut squares 9-3/4" and cut each into 4 triangles for a 6" block.

Top by CottonCharmQuilts-

Fabrics: Wicasset from Minick & Simpson

Both tops above were made from the Schnibbles pattern Madeline from Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company (Carrie now blogs for Moda, YAY!) See her at her new job here: http://blog.modafabrics.com/

This set is particularly good for sampler blocks that are not the same size. Make the corner triangles extra-large and then trim all the blocks to the same size later.

Another way to get the same look is to alternate x blocks with the stars.

Battlefields from Country Threads

One More Thing About Purple

British Plate-Print, about 1780

Winterthur Museum #1960.85

"printed in purple but now brown."

See page 214.

Linda Eaton's new edition of Printed Textiles: British and American Cottons & Linens 1700-1850 from the Winterthur Museum emphasizes the fugitive nature of purple colors. The catalog focuses on furnishing fabric and shows numerous examples of furnishings "printed in purple but now brown." Drapes and bedspreads are usually exposed to more light so more apt to fade, but I am having a hard time imagining all these lovely browns being an even lovelier purple when new from the mill. I'm going to have to change my thinking.

You need to own Eaton's new Winterthur catalog. It's the current last word on Printed Furnishings.

8 comments:

Always enjoy your posts. I have had the opportunity to see "good" purples in English quilts--ones that aren't fading or turning brown even in quilts that have been used. Wish I knew what dyes they were using!

Hi Barbara - I have been enjoying the star blog. However I truly need help understanding red. I have a hard time deciding if some reds are blue or an orange red. Then there are the names of red like turkey & madder?If we a making star blocks from a span of time how do we know what star background to use?